The objective of the project is to write a book on John Jacob Abel (1857-1938) and the development of pharmacology in the United States. The science of experimental pharmacology was born in the early 19th century, and established itself as an independent discipline in Germany in the latter half of that century. Abel, a student of Oswald Schmiedeberg (the most prominent pharmacologist of his generation), was instrumental in bringing the new science from Germany to America. After two years on the faculty at the University of Michigan, Abel moved to the Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1893. His laboratory became a center for pharmacological research and for the training of pharmacologists to fill the posts that were beginning to open up in academia, industry and government. Abel also played a key role in the establishment of a national society and a journal for pharmacology. Abel will thus form a central focus for my study, and the current year of research under this grant has been devoted largely to careful study of the voluminous collection (about 90 shelf boxes) of Abel papers (correspondence, laboratory notebooks, etc.) at Johns Hopkins University. Some attention has also been devoted to other relevant manuscript materials on the East Coast. Future research under the grant will concentrate more on the development of pharmacology at other medical schools and in government and industry. In examining the emergence of pharmacology as an independent discipline in this country, attention will be focused on such questions as the process of intellectual transfer of the discipline from Germany to the United States, the development of American pharmacologists of a "group identity," the growing involvement of pharmacologists in matters of therapeutics and public health, and the backgrounds of the individuals who entered the field.